Calling RedM/RDR3 natives from Lua

Quick reference. Native doc pages already contain Lua examples — this is the meta-guide.

Two forms

-- Direct (wrapper) — preferred when the wrapper exists
local ped = GetPlayerPed(-1)

-- Hash form — works for every native, required if no wrapper
local ped = Citizen.InvokeNative(0x275F255ED201B937, -1)

Note: capital I in Citizen.InvokeNative (Lua), lowercase i in Citizen.invokeNative (JS).

Return values

Lua handles return types automatically — no result modifiers needed. The native returns whatever its declared return type is.

local heading = GetEntityHeading(entity)        -- float
local coords = GetEntityCoords(entity, true)    -- vector3 (coords.x, coords.y, coords.z)
local name = GetEntityModel(entity)             -- string or hash depending on native

Argument types

Native param	Lua arg
`int`, `BOOL`, `Hash`, `Entity`, `Ped`, `Vehicle`	`number`
`float`	`number` (Lua has no separate float)
`const char*`	`string`
`Vector3` arg	Pass three numbers `x, y, z` — same as JS
`Hash` from name	`GetHashKey('model_name')` or `model_name` (backtick literal, RedM/FiveM-specific)

Output pointers

Lua makes pointer outputs ergonomic — they're returned as additional return values:

local hit, groundZ = GetGroundZFor_3dCoord(x, y, z, false)

Multiple *-args become extra return values in the order they appear in the C signature.

BOOL

Lua BOOL is returned as a Lua boolean (true/false), unlike JS where it comes back as 0/1.

Backtick hash literal

RedM/FiveM Lua extends the syntax with backtick string literals that are compile-time hashed:

local hash = `a_c_horse_americanstandard_black` -- equivalent to GetHashKey(...)

When to use Hash form

Native is too new for the runtime's wrapper list (rare nowadays).
You're loading a hash dynamically.
You want to be explicit about which exact native variant you're calling.

Otherwise, prefer the Direct form — the wrappers handle output-pointer unwrapping and type coercion for you.

Backtick hash literal

RedM/FiveM Lua extends the syntax with backtick string literals that are compile-time hashed:

local hash = `some_model_name` -- equivalent to GetHashKey('some_model_name')